Web 2.0 - Over and Out — Many of us in the VC community have been quietly wondering about the state of Web 2.0 innovation. We aren't seeing much. Startup activity remains strong, but the consumer web landscape seems to be populated with the same bodies with different skins.

Does everything have to be Web 2.0? — Web 2.0 might have jumped the shark - that is not exactly what Peter Rip says, but that is the essence of his argument: Web 2.0 has gone mainstream, and the innovation around it is scuffling. The personal anecdote Rip retells is pretty amusing.

Looking back at three years of Web 2.0 investing — Almost three years ago, I left the fund I was a general partner of and decided to switch my investment focus from mid-stage enterprise software to (very) early stage consumer Internet. Dotcoms as they were, since the Web 2.0 meme had not been cornered yet.

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users — Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded. — MySpace, the Web's largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions.

Apple's next-generation iMacs to add a touch of grace — AppleInsider has learned that Apple's popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs aimed at leaving both competitors and onlookers smitten.

How Google Blog Search Ranks Results — Unlike most blog search engines, Google Blog Search ranks the results by relevancy. You can change that by clicking on "sort by date", but the default option is useful if you want to find the most significant blog posts about a topic. But how does Google rank blog posts?

GPS navigation plan to help blind — Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website — An Italian technology company is pioneering a GPS satellite system that will give blind people greater independence and mobility. — The Easy Walk service has been developed by Il Village, a firm in Turin in northern Italy.

Google Personal Homepage Gets Skinnable — When I think of Google, I think of a site with a relentlessly consistent—and ultimately mundane—look and feel. Which is why a fairly minor new Google feature—dynamic themes (aka skins) for the Google Personalized Homepage—is worthy of comment here.

Who exactly wrote the first blog — Someone, somewhere created the very first Web log. It's just not quite clear who. — It may not be one of the Internet's grandest accomplishments, but with the number of active bloggers hovering somewhere around 100 million, according to one estimate …

John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies — John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.

Launch Late to Launch Often — A common theme I hope to address in this blog is accepted wisdom, especially when I think I've got a bit of a different spin on things. One piece of accepted wisdom one hears in software circles these days is "release early and often", and as you can tell …

YouTube to present video awards — Video-sharing website YouTube is to present awards for the best user-generated videos of 2006. — YouTube users will be able to vote for their favourite clips in seven categories, including most creative, and "most adorable" video ever.

Should Apple be making fun of Vista UAC? — Windows Vista UAC (User Account Control) has an additional security feature called Secure Desktop that hardens the UAC privilege escalation prompt, but some people seem to be upset with this feature because they say it's annoying.